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The government recently highlighted a huge gap in the UK’s potential exports. The UK’s largest manufacturing sector is food and drink, with a turnover of in excess of £90bn. Despite this impressive statistic only 10% of UK food and drink manufacturers currently export their goods.

If you’re a UK food or drink manufacturer and have not been involved in shipping before you may be asking ‘how do I export my goods?’

Obviously the first step is to find a buyer for your goods abroad. Once you have achieved this, the next step is to arrange the shipping of your food or drink.

In order to do this, the best route is to appoint a freight forwarder to handle this for you. Finding a reliable and reputable freight forwarder can be a bit of a task. Your freight forwarder will need to have knowledge of required documents for exporting food and drink, and also understand port health restrictions, which differ from country to country.

For this reason, it is important to choose a freight forwarder who has contacts globally. Mercator Cargo has these relevant contacts as we are a founding member of the global freight forwarding network Marco Polo Line (MPL). Using our contacts from MPL, we can draw on local knowledge at your cargo’s destination.

In the sector of international trade and shipping, knowledge is extremely powerful; it can avoid great mistakes and achieve great advantages. Mercator has a core team of experienced freight forwarders who have been working in the industry for the entirety of their careers; freight forwarding is their bread and butter.

When in discussion with your buyer, you will need to agree on what “INCO terms” you are selling your food or drink. “INCO terms” are an internationally understood terms of buying and selling, the terms outline what you as a seller are liable to pay for and what the buyer will need to pay. Discuss this in further detail with our export team if you are unsure, we will do our best to make this clear for you.

Request a Quote for Exporting Food from the UK

Mercator is a family-run, UK based independent freight forwarder, offering highly effective sea, road and air freight services around the world. Mercator is not constrained by corporate mentality and has the knowledge, experience, global network and above all, the determination to deliver a straight forward solution to every shipping task.